Firm issues soft denial against Iron Dome hack

Confirmed 'Chinese hack' downgraded to 'alleged' intrusion

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An Israeli defence firm linked to Israel's Iron Dome missile defence platform has denied reports it was hacked by Chinese attackers who made off with information on the military technology.

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) spokeswoman Eliana Fishler said in statement emailed to outlets including The Register that reports it had been popped were wrong.

"The information reported regarding the leakage of sensitive information is incorrect," Fishler said.

"The publications refer to an attempt to penetrate the company's civilian non-classified internet network which allegedly occurred several years ago.

"IAI's cyber security systems operate in accordance with the most rigorous requirements and also in this case they were proven to be effective."

Fishler was earlier credited with telling security reporter Brian Krebs who broke the story that "the information" was reported to "appropriate authorities" and that the company "undertook corrective actions in order to prevent such incidents in the future".

It was unclear how this statement meshed with the apparent denial of the now "alleged" hack.

The company did not return a request for comment in response to IAI's denial and to provide the relevant report.

The firm claimed that some 700 files were pillaged from IAI, amounting to 763MBs, including Word documents and spreadsheets, PDFs, emails, and executable binaries, and said Comment Crew was inside IAI for four months during the 2012 raid. Administrator credentials and Active Directory data was dumped and trojans and keyloggers planted, it added. ®